Fight brewing over Duke of Hamilton pub closure

Published: 10 June, 2010
by DAN CARRIER

LAST orders looks set to be called for one of Hampstead’s oldest pubs after the owners put in an application to convert the building into two four-bedroom houses.

But the plans to close the Duke of Hamilton in New End, which has been serving beers for over 300 years, have ­created a storm among regulars. 

With the backing of the Campaign for Real Ale, Hampstead and Kilburn MP Glenda Jackson and the Heath and Hampstead Society, a concerted campaign to save the pub is under way. Also backing the bid to keep the pub open is regular David Bedford, the former long distance runner who is now the director of the London Marathon. 

Possible saviours, in the guise of the pub­licans who run the Sir Richard Steele in Belsize Park and The Pineapple in Kentish Town, say they are willing to take the pub over if the bid to turn it into homes falls through. 

Paul Davies and Kirk McGrath scooped a Camra award for the Pineapple, in Leverton Street, this week – six years after it too was threatened with closure after a property developer bought it and tried to turn it into homes. 

Mr Davies said: “This pub is very a going concern. The community can watch it go down the swanee like eight other pubs in the area – or they can do something about it. Money talks in Hampstead – it is in danger of becoming just one big posh housing estate. This pub must be saved.”

Philip Slotkin, a translator who has been drinking at the Duke for more than 15 years, said: “This is a pub that works. It is not as if it is dead – at weekends it is packed. It is a convivial sort of place.”

Landlord Michael Wooderson, whose lease ran out earlier this year, confirmed that the pub worked as a going concern. But The Wellington Pub Company, who own the Duke, have declined to extend the lease. He said: “It is a viable business. The locals are none too pleased about this plan.”

Camra’s north London organiser John Cryne said: “The problem is the mismatch between the value of housing and commercial properties in the area – but we can do something about it. 

“We need to make sure councillors’ post bags are bulging – they have to ask for a change of use and we can show this pub is a valuable resource in the area.”

And while the Heath and Hampstead Society have said they will help the campaign, chairman Tony Hillier said the plans were an example of how the area was changing.  

“The Duke is an attractive local, and it will be a great loss to see another community pub disappear,” he said.

MP Glenda Jackson, who has written to Camden’s planning committee in protest on behalf of her constituents, said a number of pubs had been lost in recent years. 

“This is a continuing trend in Hampstead, which people are rightly concerned about,” she said. “It is 300 years old and it is part of the fabric of our commun­ity. I urge people to protest, to write to the Town Hall.”

The Wellington Pub Company, who own the Duke,  declined the opportunity to comment despite repeated calls from the New Journal.